Definition: Constructivism is basically a theory about how people learn, claiming that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.

This theory says that when we learn something new, we need to relate it to previous knowledge and build on what we already know to make it meaningful to us, or else we discard the new information.

In a constructivist classroom, learning is considered an "active process". Children are taught new material through real world problems and situations and the teacher is aware of all previous learning and helps the children make those connections between old and new material.

Individual and Social constructivism

Individual Constructivism is the idea that individuals create knowledge through interactions with the environment. Social constructivism emphasizes that working together with two or more people can often help the learners gain better understanding than anyone could gain alone. When students share their ideas with peers, they often elaborate and clarify what they have learned, which helps both students develop a better understanding of the topic. The video below shows students working in groups, using hands-on approaches, and learning from each other.

Criticism

Some critics of constructivism claim that asking students to make sense of the world is not always effective.For example, there are many discoveries in science that defy what was considered common sense at the time. Also, certain topics taught in a classroom simply can not be experienced, so how can children make sense of those things? There are also many cultural differences that teachers need to keep in mind because what makes sense to some may not make sense to others.

Webliography